Paging systems are known to comprise a plurality of phone lines, a paging terminal, a system controller, a plurality of active/backup repeater pairs for redundancy, and paging receivers. Typically, to page a subscriber (paging receiver), a telephone call is placed. The telephone call is received by the paging terminal via the phone lines and contains paging information which indicates the address of a target paging unit and a telephone number of the person who initiated the page. The paging terminal transmits the paging information to the system controller. The system controller transmits the paging information to all the repeaters (backup and active) which, in turn, broadcast the paging information to the paging units within the coverage area of the system. Although all paging units within the coverage area receive the paging message, only the addressed or target paging unit responds by alerting the subscriber of the received paging message.
Active and backup repeater pairs are desirable in paging systems because they minimize system down-time and minimize the loss of paging messages. However, when a repeater transition occurs, i.e. the active repeater is disabled and the backup repeater becomes active, paging messages are lost, or not transmitted, during the transition. This results in target paging units not receiving paging messages and thus not alerting the respective subscribers.
Therefore, a need exists for a method that assures data integrity during a repeater transition such that paging information is not lost during the transition.